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POLITICS

More Voters Say U.S. Needs to Spend More on Defense

As President Obama releases his latest National Security Strategy, more voters than ever think the country does not spend enough on the military and national security and that, in order to ensure its safety, the U.S. needs to spend at least three times as much on defense as any other nation.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters think the United States does not spend enough on the military and national security. This is up eight points from November and the highest finding to date. Nineteen percent (19%) still believe the United States spends too much on defense, but this view has been trending downward since January 2013 when it reached a record high of 40%. Twenty-six percent (26%) say the country spends about the right amount in this area. (To see survey question wording, click here).

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The survey of 800 Likely Voters was conducted on February 4-5, 2015 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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